Oxford University

by Ed Nelson

  Finally, I was allowed to go to my room and get some sleep. In the morning I noticed that a painting had been damaged. I knew all the paintings were originals so it must be worth some money. The painter was a guy named Klee and the painting was titled, ‘The Red Balloon.’ I would have to see what it was insured for.

  Sister had been very insistent that this was taken care of before I left on my trip. I was really glad that it had. Later when I saw what it was valued at, I about choked. Luckily it could be repaired. Even that would cost a small fortune.

  I was beginning to question whether or not I should have paintings and other decorations of great value in a place I wouldn’t visit that often. Maybe it could be donated to a museum for a tax break. I asked Sister to look into that. She told me that she had a connection with the Guggenheim and would give them a call. She would also look into reproductions for all of my paintings. She agreed that maybe a teenager’s residence wasn’t the place for works of art. Live and learn.

  The next morning I took a train to Greys. It was interesting to see the British countryside. This wasn’t the picturebook countryside. It was the gritty side of being a shipping nation. I saw small ports along the way with decayed piers and sunken barges. There were abandoned factories that had been bombed in the war and never rebuilt.

  Still, the River Thames flowed with traffic as we traveled alongside. There was every kind of waterborne vessel that you could imagine. Everything from ocean-going ships to kids on homemade rafts. How those kids didn’t get drowned or pushed under I don’t know.

  On the land side, there was the usual combination of old houses, junk, and a few vegetable garden allotments that one sees beside the railway tracks. At one point we passed a series of quarries. They were hundreds of feet deep. Mum had told stories about climbing up and down the quarry walls, surely it couldn’t be these quarries.

  At the Greys station, I took a cab to 56 Belmont Road where my grandparents had lived most of their lives. Mum was expecting me today but we weren’t sure of the time. It was hugs all around. My Grand Mum who I only had met the year before was frail-looking.

  She may have looked frail but her mind was sharp as a tack. I thought of my Mum as a force of nature. Grand Mum was the one who raised her and kept her in line as a teenager.

  The house was showing its age and could use remodeling. I made a note to talk to Mum about this. We could certainly afford better for her. We made our way to the back of the house to the little kitchen. There we had a cuppa, a cup of tea that is. This was strong stuff as compared to teas I had in America.

  The tea was considered a black tea or breakfast tea, Lapsang Souchong. It replaced coffee in the morning. It had hair on it, I had to use a lot of sugar and cream and I was a big coffee drinker.

  They had many questions about my trip. I talked non-stop for over an hour. They ended up agreeing that the trip had been worth it even though it was disappointing in places. Grand Mum thought it was a shame that the colonies were given their independence as the Crown would have set them straight. Just look at how Hong Kong went so well.

  Grand Mum had grown up under Queen Victoria and thought the Empire was just fine.

  I finally got around to telling them about the state of my hotel room and the banning of my cousins. It turned out they knew what had gone on. Paul and David had invited friends to London with them. The friends were the ones who had trashed the place and drank all the booze.

  I could accept that for the first weekend. Why did the boys invite the same people back for the next weekend? Grand Mum had no good answer for that. However, she staunchly supported her grandchildren. I would have expected no less.

  I finally agreed that the other cousins shouldn’t be held accountable for Paul and David and even they would be allowed back if they asked permission first and told me who would be there.

  The talk turned to what Mum had been doing while she was here. On her list was to look at apartments for let in the Oxford area.

  My Mm actually blushed as she started to tell me about what she had found in Oxford. Since it was in the middle of winter or Hillary term at the University all the good apartments were taken. What she had seen was small and dingy, to say the least. They were the rejects of college students. That is a pretty low bar.

  This led her to look at houses for sale. She had found a nice place that was only a fifteen-minute drive from the center of Oxford so it would be close to whatever school I attended. In fact, it was only twelve minutes from Trinity.

  She described it as in fair condition with work being needed both on the house and grounds. As she was describing it she talked faster and faster. My Mum was trying to sell me something!

  She then changed the subject to Grand Mum’s health.

  “She really shouldn’t be alone you know. She might fall and at her age, it would be bad. The new house has room for her.”

  I had this vision of a two-bedroom house shared between Grand Mum and me. What could I say with her sitting right there? I would talk to Mum about this when we drove down there tomorrow.

  We spent the evening together around the radio listening to the BBC, the Beeb. Grand Mum had never had a TV. Some of the stories I heard were new, some old. I was most interested in how Grand Mum learned to read and write.

  Her father was a supervisor on the East India docks in London. Grand Mum Mary’s mother died and he remarried. From there it became the story about the wicked stepmother. Grand Mum would be sent outside in the winter without a coat, while her stepsisters would have on nice warm woolen hats, coats, gloves and fine boots.

  When she was twelve she was put into service. She became the nanny for a six-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl. She lived at their house in London. She was paid a shilling a week and had off a half-day on Sunday. The parents were nicer than her real parents and allowed her to sit in on the children’s lessons.

  As she grew older she caught the eye of a greengrocer boy who sold from a cart in the alleys behind their row of houses. They started walking out on her half-day and while sitting in the neighborhood’s private park she taught him how to read and write. Of course, this was my grandfather. What a different world.

  I asked what happened to the stepmother and her daughters. They were all killed in a bombing raid during the war.

  After a night of poor sleep in a tiny bed in the attic of the house, Mum and I drove up to Oxford. It was a three-hour drive and I tried to get her to tell me more about the house she had bought.

  She told me she had to concentrate on her driving as she wasn’t used to the wrong side of the road anymore. I wondered what she was putting off.

  Once in Oxford, it didn’t take long to find out. Out of town on a small lane, we turned right past a set of gate pillars onto a gravel road. The road ran straight as far as I could see with great old oak trees lining both sides of the road.

  The road had a gradual rise to it and we came to a curve. As we rounded the curve there was a mansion. No other way to describe it, it was larger than Jackson House.

  On the trip, I had been wondering how it would be with Grand Mum and me in a shared living space. In this place, I could wander for a week and not find her.

  “This is what you bought?”

  “Yes, the price was right and fits our needs nicely.”

  “What is the right price for a place like this?”

  Mum danced around that question. She told me there were seven hundred acres surrounding the house. I would love my apartment in the house. Grand Mum would have her own apartment with extra room for her Nurse and companion.

  “Rick you will have to buy a car to get back and forth to school.”

  This diverted me nicely as I started to think about what I would drive in England.

  As we pulled up to the front door a man in a conservative grey suit came out. It was a Mr. Hamilton who had been the Butler to the previous owners. He had agreed to stay on. I found out there was a complete staff of a cook, two maids, and a gardener. There was
also part-time work for various people in the nearby village as needed for seasonal work. The home farm was worked by a local farmer on a lease agreement.

  The house came completely furnished down to suits of armor in the hall entrance. It was one of the most elegant places I had ever been in, including Buckingham Palace.

  “Mum, what did Dad have to say about this place?”

  “Oh, I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet.”

  I would love to hear that conversation. Yet again I had to get used to the idea that we were very rich and that while this place must have cost millions of pounds it was no big deal.

  She gave me a tour of the house. It had many rooms, the ones I remember the most was the conservatory, the billiards room with a full-size billiard table and several pool tables. Denny would love this place.

  There was a great ballroom and a dining room that would seat more than Jackson House. I asked Mum what was this place called. Since it was known as the Meadows when it was built by a coal baron in 1831 we couldn’t change it if we wanted to.

  The house had been modernized in the last twenty years so it had electric and plumbing throughout. I had noticed the sewage drain pipes fastened to the side of the house as we came in. It was the only way it could be done as the walls and spacing weren’t made for plumbing.

  “Rick I have rented an old carriage house near Trinity that will hold two cars. You can drive there each day and keep a bicycle to get around town.”

  I hadn’t thought of that but the narrow old cramped roads would have limited parking so a bike made sense. If the carriage house was as big as Mum described maybe I could set up a small workspace and cot to use during the day.

  I next had a vision of living in the carriage house while this great monstrosity sat here with dear old Grand Mum, her nurse, and staff. It wouldn’t happen that way. The rooms here were too nice, they had a cook and a maid would clean up after me.

  The library was great with many books. When I examined them I formed the opinion they had been bought by the yard as decoration only. That would change as I brought my books here. I would have my personal books shipped from Jackson House. I would also have to look into a new typewriter and one of the copy machines that were spreading everywhere.

  I would have to order a set of Encyclopedias for here and an Oxford Dictionary. That was cool an Oxford Dictionary in Oxford. I would have to get the biggest one and have it mounted on a stand.

  We even went out to the carriage house. Inside were several coaches or buggies. Mum told me one was known as a four in hand as it would take a team of four horses to pull. It was open with a driver’s seat and backseats facing each other. I had seen the like in New York City used for tours. They would be great in a parade.

  There was even a Cinderella coach with room for footmen on the back. I wonder how long it would be before Mary was waving to us peasants.

  The house was so much more than I ever thought of but I could see it as the residence of Viscountess Jackson.

  Chapter 15

  Mum took me into Oxford to show me the garage she had rented. It wasn’t what I had pictured. It was double wide but it also had an upstairs loft that had been used as living quarters in the past. There even was a toilet and a small kitchenette. While I wouldn’t want to live in it all term it would be nice if I had to stay in town overnight.

  I still needed to buy a car but that could wait until I was back for school. Next door to my garage which faced the back alley there was a bicycle shop. It was run by a retired Don who liked to tinker with bikes. We talked about bikes for a while. Students would buy a bike from him when they were ready to graduate they would sell it back.

  He would fix it up and resell it. Some of the bikes had been bought and sold by him five times. Each bike had a serial number he had engraved on the frame and each fender plus the sprocket set. It was very prominent. There were very few thefts of his bicycles because everyone knew them.

  If a bike were stolen he would circulate the serial number to all the bike shops and post it on bulletin boards with a small reward. Any thief would have to break the bike down for parts or take it to another city. It just wasn’t worth their time. The Don only charged a few quid extra for this service. I liked his style.

  I ended up buying a sturdy old bike that would handle my size. I could have bought a new flashy one with chrome fenders made by Huffy. I went with the thinner European racing style with hand brakes. Its shabby look wouldn’t stand out. I suspect I would have enough problems as it was.

  After locking the bike in the garage, Mum and I walked over to the Registrar office. Now I would see what had been arranged for me. I would hate to think all this money had been spent and they said, “Go away.”

  I didn’t seriously think this would be the case considering the support I had and the grant I had made to the college fund.

  I was right, money talks especially if the Queen of England says you should listen. I was taken to the Office of the Registrar, the head man himself.

  “Sir Richard we can’t tell you how pleased we are that you have decided to continue your education at Oxford and especially Trinity. I understand you will be taking the Engineering course for four years and will be a Master of Engineering when you graduate. It is a shame that we can’t fit you into student housing. I trust you have found something.”

  I looked at Mum for an answer.

  She spoke up, “yes we have bought a house outside of town, ‘The Meadows,’ if you are familiar with it.’

  I just thought the guy was fawning over us. He positively drooled.

  “I have Viscountess Jackson, I’m so glad you have chosen to join our community.”

  “Richard and my mother will be living there. I will of course visit from America on a regular basis.”

  “I see. Richard if you are living out in the country I should let you know parking is really bad around here.”

  I told him about the garage setup Mum had arranged. He thought that a splendid idea. I think if Mum had told him she had me staying in a rabbit hutch it would have been a splendid idea.

  I was given a list of the required and optional lectures that were available through Trinity. There was a list of required reading books. Most importantly I was given my ticket for entrance to the dining hall. This was for meals on campus. There was also the student bar for social occasions.

  Someone had paid for everything including tuition. I had to find out who had done this and repay them or at least include them on my Christmas card list. That reminded me when I was back at my office I would have a lot of cards to sign. Even after going to printed signatures on employee anniversary cards I had hundreds to sign.

  After best wishes all around Mum and I headed to a book store. There I loaded a large trolley with the books on the list. I also picked up a student black gown and other paraphernalia. This included several Oxford tee shirts, sweaters, and pullovers. Hey, I had learned to dress for my parts in the movies. There was even a dark blue blazer with the Trinity coat of arms. I had to have it.

  I had to go through each of the required reading books to find the suggested reading and purchase copies of them.

  When we got back to the house our Butler Mr. Hamilton had a footman unload all my books for the library. I had a brainstorm.

  “Would it be possible to have someone go through all those books and order a copy of the suggested reading?”

  “It will be our pleasure, Sir Richard.”

  While I was on a roll I added a xerography machine to the list and the Unabridged Oxford Dictionary.

  “You may not be aware but there is already a set which was purchased last year. Do you wish to have it set up on its stands?”

  “I do wish.” Well, I didn’t really say that. What I said, was “Sure.”

  It would be really easy to get used to this level of service. I made certain to thank both Mr. Hamilton and the footman who had carried my books in.

  I tried to make a joke with Mr. Hamilton.


  “We will have to order a formal livery for the staff to wear.”

  “We have that in the former owner’s colors, do you wish to review them to see if they are acceptable. We normally only wear them for formal occasions.”

  I’m not in Kansas anymore. I hadn’t been there in a long time but this was getting well, it was getting something, I didn’t even have words for it. Strange? Weird? Goofy?

  Mum who was standing there told Mr. Hamilton she would look at the outfits and make a decision.

  The next morning Mum drove me down to London and dropped me off at Heathrow Airport for my flight back to the States. She was heading back to Greys to start moving Grand Mum to Oxford.

  I originally had planned to buy a car while I was here in England but it would now have to wait until I got back.

  I had thought that with Dad and the State Department people going to meetings in Washington after dropping me off in London that I would get out of going to DC.

  Dad had Mum inform me that I was wanted both at The State Department and The White House. So my flight from London was to National Airport in Alexandria Virginia.

  The flight was only eight hours which seemed like nothing after the Asian trip. I was met at luggage by a man with a sign with my name on it. He was with a limo company and took me to The Willard. I had stayed there before when visiting The White House last year.

  In the morning I rose early and got a run in down along the Mall and back. After cleaning up and a decent breakfast I walked over to the White House. I knew which gate to go to sign in. There was no hold up there as I had my US Passport and US Marshals ID with me.

  A uniformed secret service guard escorted me to the entryway where the plainclothes people took over. They took me to the ante-room to the Oval Office where I had to wait for about half an hour. When the door opened the President was right there to escort me in.